Jack's Mailbag Ep. 53: Answering your latest South Carolina baseball questions

With seven games remaining, South Carolina has entered the home stretch of the regular season. The Gamecocks will open their final homestand of the year on Friday in a weekend series against Alabama.

It’s time for my weekly Q&A series, Jack’s Mailbag, where I answer all of your Gamecock baseball questions. If you would like to have a question featured in the next episode, I’ll create a post on The Insiders Forum at the start of every week, and you can ask your question there.

Without further ado, let’s get into this week’s questions.

Gamecock14: If you were on the coaching search committee, what would be your number one question to ask the candidates? If you were making this hire, who would be your top 3 candidates and why?

I’d like to hear their vision and plan for turning the program around. That’s mainly what I’d be asking right away. As far as my top three candidates, I’m a big fan of Dan Fitzgerald from Kansas, Kevin Schnall from Coastal Carolina and James Ramsey from Georgia Tech.

Number one, all three are head coaches with Division I-level experience. In the case of Schnall, he’s been to Omaha. Fitzgerald and Ramsey haven’t been there as head coaches, but I do think they are the next up-and-coming coaches to get there sooner rather than later. Heck, Ramsey might get there this year with the way things are going for Georgia Tech. But Fitzgerald has done a great job at Kansas, winning 43 games last year and well on his way to 40-plus wins again this year.

Mr. Cock: Heard JD going all in on Schnall. I personally think it’s pretty much done.

Like Coastal Carolina athletics director Chance Miller said on 107.5 The Game last month, Schnall would be the first person he would call if he were still at South Carolina. He’ll definitely be a popular pick to be the program’s next coach. We’ll see how it shakes out, but I think it’ll be a bit tougher to get Schnall just because he’s Coastal through and through and has a really good thing going there. My other thought is, if he didn’t take the Tennessee job, why would he take the job at South Carolina? It’s probably going to take a bit more convincing to get it done, but I do think it’s possible. He should certainly be a priority.

Milton Gamecock: When do you think we will begin to have movement and more info on candidates for the new baseball coach?

Once the season ends. Jamie Bradford posted some notes on the search last week on the new Inside The Gamecocks message board that you can check out here. But we should definitely have a better idea of who’s in the running when the season winds down in a couple of weeks.

Burneybear: Do you think if they get Schnall he brings back Matt Williams?

It’s possible. It would make a lot of sense for Schnall to want to bring Williams, D1Baseball.com’s 2025 Assistant Coach of the Year, along with him. He’s obviously a great coach and is proving just as much at Coastal. I thought he did a nice job here in his one season at South Carolina. You’d love for Schnall to bring his staff with him from Conway if he ends up being the hire.

FADocCock: You posed the question about ‘acceptable’ for the stretch of games from PC to the LSU series. We went 3-5. Below what many said was acceptable, but better than my answer of 0-8. Bc nothing has changed. We rolled right off that LSU sweep into the Alabama series and not much change. So was the 3-8 acceptable or no?

I think I posted that question for the nine-game homestand, not the stretch of games from PC to LSU. Either way, the results have definitely not been acceptable. Losing to The Citadel and getting swept at LSU is not acceptable. Finishing 4-5 in the longest homestand of the year was a letdown. So, however you want to look at it, South Carolina didn’t play well enough during that stretch of games.

Hampton Rhodes: So, what kind of cake are you serving at the reception? (Sorry baseball is too depressing of a thought)

I actually asked Caroline this question yesterday after I saw it on my post, and honestly, we’re not sure yet. We’ve got a lot going on, planning-wise, with many other things going on in our lives, so we’ll get around to figuring out what type of cake we’ll serve at the reception. I’ll have an answer for you someday.

1Mcreekcock: Jack, do you expect a quick hire at the end of the season?

I don’t think so. I think it depends on what you define as quick. We know that South Carolina is in the “assessment phase” and will use a search firm to help throughout the process. So it looks like the ball is slowly starting to get rolling, but does that mean a hire will be made as soon as the season ends? I doubt it.

Keep in mind, some of the coaches that South Carolina may want are still going to be coaching with their current teams in the postseason. So if there’s a certain coach that they have interest in, and their team goes on a run to let’s say Omaha, it may be a little bit longer before that hire is made. But again, it really just depends on where that coach is coming from with their current situation.

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ShaneBeamersBurner: Best food spread in any road stadium you’ve been to?

Florida is always really good. When I went there in March, they had a really solid catered meal for each day of the series. Plus, on Sundays, it’s my understanding that they have a tradition of bringing in donuts and serving an espresso shot to all the media members before the game, which I think is super cool.

Black_Magic84: Tell me how the ABS is going to work?

The NCAA Baseball Rules Committee on Monday approved the SEC’s request to implement a challenge system for balls and strikes for each game of this year’s conference tournament in Hoover, Ala. It will be similar to the system used in Major League Baseball.

Below is how it’s going to work, directly from the SEC’s website.

• The Hoover Met will be equipped with cameras, which will track the movement of the baseball. This is how the automated system can place the location of the ball within the strike zone.
• Measurements of each player will be gathered prior to each team’s first game of the SEC Tournament. This will determine the appropriate strike zone for each individual player based on each player’s height.
• Each team will start a game with three challenges. The challenge must be initiated immediately after the conclusion of the prior pitch, provided that if there is an ensuing play on a runner (including a batter-runner), or an appeal of a check-swing, the call may be challenged immediately upon the conclusion of the ensuing play.
• Successful challenges will be retained, but an unsuccessful challenge will result in the loss of the used challenge. In extra innings, both teams shall be afforded one challenge per inning, which may be retained through the inning, but may not be carried over to any subsequent inning. 
• A challenge is initiated by a player tapping the top of the cap or helmet. 
• After the umpire signals that a challenge has been initiated, an animated pitch result graphic will be displayed on the stadium videoboard and on the television broadcast, showing the location of the pitch, whether the call was confirmed or overturned, and the updated ball-strike count.  
• All decisions regarding the placement of base runners resulting from a call that is overturned shall be made by the on-field umpires, in accordance with the standards set forth in NCAA Baseball Rules.

_jtmathwig: I recommend a few food stations of your favorite bites rather than a sit-down occasion. Keeps the dance floor in play longer.

I’ll keep that in mind. We’re so early in the planning process that we haven’t booked a venue for the reception yet, so it’s tough to say for certain what all we’re going to do. But I think we both definitely want to have food that we can enjoy as well as all of our guests when the date arrives next year.

Murray7: MLB measured all the players heights multiple times to calibrate the height of each of their strike zones. Do you know if the SEC is doing the same?
Do we have an analytics guy that will give them guidelines on when to challenge (Gordon)?
Has the team practiced challenging situations in practice using Trackman? Any guys that have more trust to challenge than others?
Do you think the SEC would implement ABS next year in conference play if it’s successful this tournament?

I’ll go question-by-question here. First, yes, the league will collect measurements for each player before the tournament to determine what each hitter’s strike zone will be based on their height.

They have guys that work in analytics, but as far as whether they’re going to have someone give them guidelines on when to challenge, I’m not sure yet. I asked Monte Lee about ABS on Thursday, and he doesn’t anticipate addressing it until potentially next weekend when they go to Vanderbilt.

If you’re talking about working on ABS during practice, no, they haven’t yet. Lee said they will “get there when we get there.” They’ve still got games to play where they won’t be using ABS until they get to Hoover in two weeks.

I think that’s where this is heading. If all goes well in Hoover, it should be something we see in 2027. Now, will we see it across the sport at the college level? I’m not sure. Just because the SEC is doing it, that doesn’t mean the other conferences have to. But at least for SEC games next year, I could see that becoming the norm moving forward, which would be a good thing. It’s all about getting the calls right.

WK: Jack, what are your thoughts on keeping Valentin in the weekend rotation? I know they’re keeping in the bullpen for emergencies, but he has now started five weekends in a row (plus a midweek). In those six starts, he has thrown 19.2 innings and allowed 12 earned runs (5.49 ERA). In comparison, Valentin has a 3.97 ERA in 13 relief appearances (22.2 innings), and even that number is drastically inflated by a 6 spot at Florida when he went relatively long at 2.2 innings and 57 pitches. I know guys like Gunther and Philpott (or even Goodman) haven’t done much to earn trust to start on a Sunday, but it is clear that Alex thrives in shorter stints.

I think you have to keep Valentin in the rotation because your options are otherwise a bit scarce. As you said, Gunther, Philpott and Goodman haven’t done enough to earn a start on the weekends. At this point in the season, I’d like to see them try something different and put Valentin back in the bullpen. He did much better in the closer role, plus you can use him twice in a series. There’s much more value in using him multiple times out of relief compared to making one start at the SEC Tournament. But because of injuries and some guys underperforming, that’s just not a luxury that they currently have.

cocky347: Can we just cancel the weekend series with Alabama?

Maybe Alabama will for RPI purposes (I’m kidding, I’m kidding).

ShaneBeamersBurner: (Referencing this post on X) This feels like quite a leap from “we’re going to work with a search firm.” Jack, Paul Mainieri was hired on June 10th, 2024, I believe. Given this team likely won’t be in the postseason like Kingston’s last year, do you have an anticipated timeline on when Donati would like to have a new coach named? Obviously, taking into account the new coach is *likely* coaching in the postseason.

It’s hard to say when the hire will be made, other than after the season. A lot of it will depend on who South Carolina targets and what that coach’s current situation looks like, since, as you said, any potential hire will likely be coaching in the postseason.

Donati has also said he would like to make the hire “as soon as possible,” but there seems to be an understanding that it’s not that simple and could turn into waiting it out if they want a specific coach.

While South Carolina will remain one of the premier jobs on the market, the process will largely hinge on waiting for candidates to finish their seasons at their current programs and become available once their postseason runs end. But once that happens, I’d imagine things should move quickly after that.

o_Pepsicock: Is Erik Parker still on the team?

Yes, he just doesn’t play that much. It could have something to do with him hitting .195 this year.

gsgp69: Coach at Northern Greenville University, ain’t he a former Gamecock baseball player? Didn’t he win Coach of the year in their league? Is he being looked at? Landon Powell yes it’s D2 but he’s way better than what we’ve had. Look at Softball she was a Gamecock and bring the passion, love the wants to make the Program, University and Fans proud.

Softball and baseball are completely different situations. With softball, I don’t think many people expected that first season to unfold the way it did, so the expectations entering 2025 weren’t nearly as high. Baseball is different. You’re not making this hire with the idea of winning five years from now or overseeing a long rebuild. South Carolina needs a proven coach who can win immediately and get the program back to Omaha.

Powell has done well at North Greenville, but he’s never coached at the D1 level. South Carolina shouldn’t be taking any risks with this hire. Powell is a risk, simply because he’s a D2 coach. Sure, he’s a legend here in Columbia, but ask yourself this: would he even be an option if he didn’t play at South Carolina? Why hasn’t another school hired him with all of his success? I think he needs to prove he can do it at that level first, but I don’t think that should be here, where the Gamecocks are trying to get back on the map.

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